Blogs from Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, Europe

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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca July 26th 2023

We decided to have a quiet day today, so we drove the 40km down the Autostrada to Lucca, this is our second time at Lucca. This time we chose to park in a different park and walk a different part of the town, although Rose did want to go back to the book store that specialised in English and Japanese books. We walked up to to the other end of Lucca and found a loverly river running through the town. We continued to find more and more Public halls and Churches. What a lovely town Lucca is and so easy to walk around as is flat. Later that afternoon we where back to the local pool for swim and sun baking. What a life we have. This night we had agreed that Pasta was off the ... read more
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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca July 19th 2023

As we arrived in Tuscany the cold Rose had developed from Scotland transferred to me somewhere in France, and we decided to focus on getting well. So we had a couple of days in the villa and focus on getting well. As you can imagine this became boring quickly and by the third day we decided we needed to venture further than the supermarkets and went out for dinner to a local restaurant. Ristorante Pizzeria Da Caino La Cantina will focus in future blogs as we intend to have this as outrTuesday dinner venue. The next day we went to Lucca for the day, about a 20 minute drive. Once we arrived and parked, we aimlessly walked the streets absorbing the atmosphere while Rose found a little bag shop and purchased a replacement bag for the ... read more
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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca October 22nd 2019

We made it this time! It was the one place on our 'want to do list' while in Florence. Caught the bus that goes straight past our door, DD Lucca €9ea one way. An hour drive on the toll motorway. Not so many cars due to the tolls but plenty of trucks. Checked the weather before & expecting 28°?. Lucca is located on the fertile plains of the Serchio River. We travelled past many plant nurseries on the way into greater Lucca. It is well known for it's pretty old town inside some well maintained Renaissance City Walls. There is evidence of a settlement in 3rd BC called Luk...meaning marsh & of course giving the city it's name. The Rampart has 12 bastions & since there was no military importance anymore became a tree lined promenade ... read more
From the wall looking into the city
From the City wall
The wall itself

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca June 1st 2019

1/6/2019 – Lucca Verplaatsing naar Lucca. We bezochten het prachtige middeleeuws stadje met de fiets vanop onze camperplaats even buiten de stad. Het historische stadje werd gesticht door de Etrusken die het volledig ommuurden vanaf 180 v.Chr. De huidige goedbewaarde vestingsmuren dateren van de 16e eeuw : 4 km lang, 12 meter hoog en aan de basis 12 meter breed. Boven op de 'Mura', nu een 4km lang fiets- en wandelpad rondom de stad die slechts toegankelijk is langs 6 monumentale toegangspoorten.... read more
Lucca - Kathedraal
Lucca - detail van toren
Lucca - Basiliek van San Frediano

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca September 6th 2018

Today we left the gorgeous Ligurian coast and headed south and west to Lucca and then on to Florence. We spent most of the day in Lucca, a walled medieval town, although its first walls were built in Roman times. In 56 B.C. Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus agreed to rule Rome as a triumvirate. It is known for its towers, one of which is very prominent today because it has trees growing from its top. The towers were built by the rich of the town on their palaces and the town was a republic and didn't want any one to get ahead of their neighbors--so they limited the height and the plantings were a way around the limit. Lucca has over 80 churches, many of which are not used as churches any more. One such building ... read more
Lucca—San Michele Catedral
Florence-the Duomo at night
windows with candle holders for Feste San Croce—Lucca

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca October 6th 2017

I had been in Lucca once before with Mike but this time we entered the city through St. Peter’s gate and saw many different churches and plazas. The city dates back to Roman times and although the original walls are gone now it is still a walled city. The current walls date to the 15th century. No longer used for protection, the city walls provide wonderful walks and bicycle trails. While all the surrounding towns and villages were conquered by Florence, Lucca remained independent until a profligate ruler sold the town to Florence to settle gambling debts. It is a great sense of pride to the locals that the city has never been conquered. It was early when we arrived and the city had not fully awakened. We strolled through mostly empty streets to the old ... read more
One of many towers
The cathedral

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca September 23rd 2017

There was an hourly bus service to Pisa so we thought we had better get the 9 o’clock bus. We had checked out the bus station the previous day and arrived in good time, bought our tickets and got on the bus where we waited for the driver to arrive, in good Italian style. At this point we realised we had left our voucher for going up the tower behind but the next bus would have been too late so we carried on. The bus trip was supposed to be about 25 minutes but it took nearly twice that, however we had time in hand and got a good view of the Tuscan countryside and little villages. When we arrived in Pisa we went to the booking office and they had a record of our booking ... read more
Pisa Tower Leaning View
Pisa Cathedral from Tower 2
Pisa Tower Bell Tamara

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca September 22nd 2017

We didn’t get much sleep during the night and staggered down to the little bar for breakfast but Dave couldn’t have any. The ladies there were very sympathetic and Tamara could understand their Italian quite well by this time and translate it. Fortunately she was unaffected by the bug. We had bought our tickets to Lucca so went very gently to the train station nearby. We didn’t even have to carry our luggage down and up the subway as our train left from the nearside platform. We more or less rested on the train and looked out at the countryside. We went past the huge and famous marble quarries at Carrara and kept a sharp lookout for Viareggio where we had to change. In good Italian style the train was just late enough that we missed ... read more

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca May 6th 2017

Geo: 43.843, 10.508Buonasera!We left Venice Friday morning under sunny skies, took a couple of trains passing through Florence (though not long enough to leave the train station to catch a glimpse of the Duomo there), and arrived in sunny Lucca (Tuscany) mid-afternoon.Using the GPS, we made our way from the train station to our lovely B&B, where the hosts had put us in a wonderful suite on the top floor with a view overlooking red tile roofs and the Passagiata Delle Mura, a green space, park, and walking/biking path on top of the broad wall that encircles the entire city.After quickly unpacking, we got out for a nice long walk around the entire 2.5-mile circumference of the wall, did a self-guided walking tour of the city and its major sites, and grabbed slices of heavenly pizza ... read more
B&B lobby
Staircase up to our room
Room with a view

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca April 26th 2017

Today we were treated to a private tour of Lucca, a town dating back to Roman times. We were able to make out parts of the wall around the town with some more modern gates that were added in 1789 and 1870's. A special sight was a convent that had a dome with a cupola. We were taken up the spiral staircase (70 steps) to the top where we could see how it had been constructed. The top of the cupola is a separate curved piece with a painting that gives suggestion of a completely solid top, but sides are open to let in light--a sort of "trompe l'oeil". We are so lucky to be staying with a friend of R's with whom he travelled in 1973! They had not seen each other since then, but ... read more




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